What a weekend for the average footy fan. The Grand Finals of three premier competitions around the country have been run and won, with three thoroughly deserving winners emerging. The records will now show that Collingwood prevailed in the replayed AFL Grand Final, demolishing St.Kilda 108-56 on Saturday afternoon in sunny Melbourne, while in a stormy and wet Sydney, Sydney University similarly accounted for Randwick 46-6.
Sunday night rounded out the Grand Final weekend, with St.George/Illawarra taking out the NRL Premiership, winning 32-8 over the Sydney Roosters.
As tends to be the case on Grand Final days, the game is often turned on its head by the deeds of a certain player. Think Scott Sattler’s tackle on Roosters winger Todd Byrne in 2003, or Leo Barry’s mark that sealed the Sydney Swans’ 2005 Premiership. One player always leaves his mark.
In Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, that one player was Collingwood defender Heath Shaw. With Collingwood out of the blocks quickly, and St.Kilda struggling to stay in touch, Shaw produced the play that told the Saints fans that this was not going to be their day.
With St.Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt running into an open goal, and ready to launch what should have been their first goal of the match into the top deck of the MCG, Shaw produced what Seven commentator, Tom Harley, described amongst much commentary box-ribbing ribbing as, “…as good a play as I’ve ever seen.”
The Roar regular, Mister Football, detailed it beautifully in the Sunday wash-up:
“Shaw comes from nowhere, Riewoldt lumbers in thinking he’s 20 metres in the clear (and he was) – it’s so fast that it’s hard to work out what happened in real time, but Shaw does a full body length dive to get to the ball as Riewoldt drops it – so quick does it happen that Riewoldt follows through with the kick, and luckily for Shaw, it’s a fresh air kick, when he could just as easily have collected a part of Shaw.
Not quite a smother – but one of the all time great grand final goal saves.
Collingwood were never going to lose it after that effort.”
Dennis Cometti came out with his own piece of commentary gold, telling us that Shaw “…snuck up on him like a librarian. He didn’t hear him coming!”
Shaw was far from a one-trick pony though, as far the game played out, and would finish the game as one of Collingwood’s dominant players. It seemed that on the rare occasion when St.Kilda was able to sneak into their forward fifty, Shaw was invariably there to snuff out any scoring chances.
Late in the game, I scribbled down three names who I thought might be a decent chance for the Norm Smith Medal for the best player afield: Heath Shaw, Scott Pendlebury, and Dale Thomas.
I couldn’t separate the three, and in the end, Pendlebury took it out. But the stats had Pendlebury, Shaw and Thomas as the leading possession-gatherers, so I wasn’t far off.
Later on Saturday, I really tested out my powers of concentration by pulling out the second TV to show the Shute Shield Grand Final for the Sydney club rugby competition.
It was a welcome return to Concord Oval, too, and despite the rain, the ground still looked a treat with a healthy crowd on hand. Perhaps this is just me, but more football grounds should have box hedges adorning the front of the stands.
This was a dominant display from the Students, but there was none better than flyhalf Berrick Barnes. The Wallaby midfielder was the lynchpin in everything Uni fired at Randwick, but it was his near-flawless goal kicking that put the game beyond doubt.
Three penalties and five conversions from nine shots was the result, with the shot that missed actually hitting the upright. Barnes scored the ‘sealer’ try just beyond the hour, converted it, and was promptly replaced to a rousing reception and 26 points to his name.
The debates will start soon whether he’s played his way back into the Wallaby side for the Spring Tour, but you’d be brave to back against him on his last month’s form.
Sunday evening saw the NRL Grand Final, with the Dragons taking out their first premiership for the joint venture club.
Fullback Darius Boyd took out the Clive Churchill Medal for the player of the match, but I have a sneaking suspicion Dragons captain Ben Hornby might not have been far behind. Hornby was inspirational for the red V, and came up with the big plays when it mattered.
While he had a hand in both of winger Jason Nightingale’s tries, crucially changing the point of attack for the first, two other decisive, yet largely unnoticed plays caught my eye.
Just before halftime, with the rain starting to come down and the Dragons still trailing 8-6, Hornby spectacularly revisited his fullback days.
Running back with the flight of another Roosters bomb on his try line, Hornby flew high above the contesting pack to claim the catch. It’d be a close-run thing between Hornby’s and Brendan Goddard’s last week for the Grand Final mark of the year.
Later in the game, with the Dragons now well on top, Hornby can be seen marshalling the troops to get ready for a Jamie Soward field goal. Hornby, as he did last week against Wests Tigers, then took up a position next to the play-the-ball, so as to block the passage of the markers getting through to Soward.
It was the perfect dummy.
The Roosters defenders tried to get through quickly, only to see Nathan Fein dive over the try line from dummy half. Never the flashiest or most creative halfback in the game, Hornby has always had to rely on his smarts, and this was him at his most subtle.
He’s such an important player for the Dragons, though, and now he has a premiership ring to show for it.
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